Long Column Functions

Long column functions return information from the long column descriptor.

Scope

SQL Data Manipulation Statements

SQL Syntax

  { OUTPUT_DEVICE(LongColumnName)
    OUTPUT_NAME(LongColumnName)    }

Parameters

OUTPUT_DEVICE

returns an integer value indicating the output device type stored in the long column descriptor for LongColumnName. The values returned are shown in the table below:

Value Returned	Output Device Type
0	none specified
1	system file
2	shared memory

OUTPUT_NAME

returns the output device name stored in the long column descriptor for LongColumnName. The string returned is a 44 byte value.

LongColumnName

is the name of the column that has a long data type (LONG BINARY or LONG VARBINARY).

Description

The long column functions can appear in the select list or search condition of an SQL data manipulation statement.
The long column functions are useful when you need information about the long column descriptors, but do not want to fetch the data.
For more information on long column data types, see the "Data Types" chapter.
Referencing a LONG column in a LONG column function does not cause the LONG data to be written out to the output device.

Examples

OUTPUT_DEVICE example
Change the PartPicture output device name to NewHammer in any row whose output device type for PartPicture is a system file.
UPDATE PartsIllus SET PartPicture = '> NewHammer' WHERE OUTPUT_DEVICE(PartPicture) = 1
OUTPUT_NAME example
Select the output device name of the PartPicture column for any row with a PartNumber of 100.
SELECT OUTPUT_NAME(PartPicture) FROM PartsIllus WHERE PartNumber = 100
Change all occurrences of the output device name of the PartPicture column to NewHammer if the current output device name is Hammer.
UPDATE PartsIllus SET PartPicture = '> NewHammer' WHERE OUTPUT_NAME(PartPicture) = 'Hammer'

Long Column Functions

Technical documentation

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Scope

SQL Syntax

Parameters

Description

Examples